The NAtional STAndard Race (NASTAR) series has been open to all levels of skiers since 1968. Using U.S. Ski Team athletes and pacesetters to establish base times, NASTAR scores racers with a handicap and puts them in ability-appropriate categories during the season. The program today attracts more than 100,000 people who try to qualify for nationals at more than 100 ski areas in the country.
Corbin qualified for NASTAR nationals during his first year in 2014, and he has raced to the podium every year since. The national championships were held at Aspen-Snowmass for his first two years, and Corbin raced at Steamboat Ski Resort for the next two years.
The championships moved to Squaw Valley in California for 2018 and 2019. To qualify in the boys 10–11 age division this year, Corbin competed in the Wolf Creek Fun Race Series. But the family also travelled to sample different courses and conditions. Corbin’s first race this season for ranking was a gold medal at Big Sky of Montana on Dec. 27, followed by gold and platinum medals at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort two days later and Snowmass Ski Area on March 16.
Corbin won a silver medal in the slalom competition at the start of the multi-day event, returning to the mountain for the giant slalom races (and the “Race of Champions” on April 7). The events require different techniques, and Corbin said he’s comfortable with both races.
“I would say my form is better in slalom,” Corbin surmised, “but my speed is better in GS.”
Parents Aaron and Natalie Horrocks have shared the journey with Corbin down steep chutes across the western U.S., primarily their home mountain of Wolf Creek Ski Area.
“My first memory is skiing through what we called See-See Trees just off the bunny hill,” Corbin recalled. “I was three when I first started, but I can’t remember back that far.”
He does, however, remember his first time through gates.
“I saw the course set up, and I asked if I could join,” Corbin said. “I’ve always loved the course. I asked to sign up with Coach Joe, and ever since then I’ve been doing it.”
Corbin reunited with another mentor in Squaw Valley, former head coach Dean Sell. The Wolf Creek Ski Team has changed over the years.
“I think the most we had on the team was maybe 30. This year we have a whole new bunch of kids. It’s actually really nice,” Corbin said.
Corbin helps teach new racers, and he said it helps him as well. “If I’m helping, I have to remember everything so I look good and don’t teach them a bad habit.”
Corbin noted how skiing at different mountains helped prepare him for varied conditions.
“If it’s super slushy, the snow is going to move right out from under you,” Corbin explained. “So you need to get a hard edge to get any turn at all. Whereas ice… you will slide. So at that same rate, you want to have a hard edge and power through it. You can’t just let the ski carry you.”
Corbin’s times set a NASTAR handicap that put him in the top Platinum category his first year, and he’s been in the Gold tier ever since, winning bronze and silver medals routinely. But in 2019, he earned his first gold after winning fun and qualifying races all season.
The best part of the trip to NASTAR nationals, according to Corbin, was captured for a video his parents made with footage and images from Denver to California and back.
“There was a moment when a part of my ski was flat on the ground, but it had a twist in it,” Corbin recalled. “It was hard to get any power to that ski because it was on ice with a slush layer on top of it. I was just holding on, to be honest, trying to hold that edge to save my life.”
On the edge but grounded, Corbin kept his balance, won the gold and earned his first chance to ski on Sunday in the “Race of Champions.” He finished 11th, and the South Fork skier has his sights set on new gates.
“It’s going to be in Aspen-Snowmass next year,” Corbin said.